About Me

When not nosing, tasting, drinking and reading about malt whisky, I own one of Israel's premiere boutique coaching practices, specializing in small businesses and executive teams.
Trained in the law, I was an international law attorney and took part in Israel's peace negotiations with the Palestinians, as well as representing my country at the UN for parts of the negotiations on the implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Later I was appointed to the military bench.
My favorite thing, other than whisky, is teaching.
You can contact me through the social media buttons above or by email: michael(at)maltandoak.com, replacing the (at) with an @.

Statement of Integrity and Guidelines

Malt and Oak is an independent whisky blog, offering my own views, opinions and news from the world of malt whisky.
These are my guidelines:

1. All whisky reviews published are of whiskies I have personally tasted and noted. Guest bloggers only write about their own personal tastings.

2. With the exception of official whisky samples, I accept no consideration whatsoever from any distillery, bottler, distributor, drink company or store for my opinions.

3. I maintain strict impartiality and objectivity in tasting all whiskies, not least when tasting official samples. Any review of official whisky samples sent to me will be so noted in the post.

4. I will accept invitations to tastings, events and official visits, and full disclosure will be made on any tasting notes and articles resulting from these events or visits.

5. Any sample received over 30 ml in volume is shared with fellow whisky bloggers. In any event, no sample larger than 100 ml will be accepted.

6. No advertisements promoting specific brands will be accepted.

7. I will answer any inquiry by my readers as quickly and as fully as possible.

8. Should I give a link purchase the reviewed whisky, it will be given free of any commercial interest. The link given will always point to cheapest selling price I found on the web. No commission is paid, nor any other consideration given, for such link.

9. As of July 2017, I serve as Douglas Laing’s Israel brand ambassasdor. As such, I will obviously not be posting reviews of Douglas Laing products.

A Benrinnes Sherry Bomb!

I think Benrinnes is one of the distilleries with the largest number of unaware drinkers in the world. You get some Benrinnes in every bottle of Johnny Walker, thus by exension, it has a huge number of drinkers. Yet, I’m not sure that every malthead had the opportunity to have a Benrinnes single malt, as the bottlings are relatively few and far between.

Photo Credit: commons.wikimedia.org

Named for a nearby mountain, Benrinnes was owned by John Dewar and Sons, and came into the United Distillers portfolio with them, but was not sold on to Bacardi by Diageo. The distillery was separated from other Speyside distilleries by its process. Until 2007, Benrinnes was partially triple distilled.

There have only been five official bottlings of Benrinnes by UD/Diageo. The only regular bottling was a 15 year old Flora and Fauna in 1991, and there have been several Special Releases, including one Rare Malt Selection in 1996 and a 23 year old and a 21 year old Special Releases in 2009 and 2014 respectively.

This is an independent bottling of a 26 year old single cask Benrinnes by The Bottlers. This is a stunning refill sherry butt at cask strength which will tickle and old sherry loves’s fancy.

Nose: Deepest sherry and oak. High alcohol on nose. This dram really needs water. Notes of a dusty spice store, old leather, tobacco, a lot of oak on the nose, light notes of furniture polish. Water tones down the polish and brings out the classic old sherry, tobacco leaf. Harsh without water and a true stunner with it.

Palate: Very powerful oak to the point of overpowering the malt without water. A lot of old sherry, concentrated dried fruit, spicy with pepper and ground cinnamon with a lot of tannins and tobacco. Satisfyingly mouth drying!

Linger: Long overall with sweet and oaky notes with some polish and mild spice in the gullet. Dried fruit concentrate, sweet on the cusp of woody with some metallic note.

Conclusion

Fabulous dram. Water is your friend here! I think this might have been even more of a stunner given slightly less time in the cask, but we’re splitting hairs here. This is an absolute stunner, and if you come across it, pick up a bottle.